St. Nicholas Avenue is a major street that runs obliquely north-south through severalblocks between 111th and 193rd Streets in theNew York Cityborough ofManhattan. St. Nicholas Avenue serves as a border between the West Side of Harlem and Central Harlem. The route, which follows a course that is much older than the grid pattern of theCommissioners' Plan of 1811, passes through the neighborhoods ofHarlem,Hamilton Heights, andWashington Heights. It is believed to follow the course of an old Indian trail that became an important road in the 17th century between the Dutch settlement ofNew Amsterdam and the BritishNew England Colonies. In the post colonial era, it became the western end of theBoston Post Road. The road became a street whenrow housing was being built in Harlem during its rapid urban expansion following the end of theAmerican Civil War.
North of 169th Street, St. Nicholas Avenue is aligned with the street grid with Wadsworth Avenue one block west (north of 174th Street) andAudubon Avenue one block east.It crosses over theTrans-Manhattan Expressway at 178-179th Streets. The intersection of St. Nicholas with Broadway at 167th Street formsMitchell Square Park. Below 169th Street, St. Nicholas Avenue cuts at a diagonal to much of the Manhattan street grid, crossingAmsterdam Avenue at 162nd Street and continuing against the grain to West 148th Street. Below 148th, St. Nicholas returns to a rough alignment with the grid, with Convent Avenue one block west and Edgecombe Avenue to the east, down to 124th Street. Below 124th, St. Nicholas Avenue takes a sharp diagonal, crossingFrederick Douglass Boulevard at 121st Street, andAdam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 116th Street, ending atLenox Avenue, just north ofCentral Park. Its 17th-century origin as part of theEastern Post Road accounts for its non-conformance to the grid pattern proposed by theCommissioners' Plan of 1811.
TheIND Eighth Avenue Line (A, B, C, and D trains) runs under St. Nicholas Avenue north of 121st Street as far as 168th Street, and is sometimes referred to as theSt. Nicholas Avenue Line. TheIRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line (1 train) also has stations on the avenue at 181st & 191st Streets.
Bus service is provided by the following:
The street is claimed to follow an oldWecquaesgeek trail. From early colonial days through the 19th century, it was known as Harlem Lane.[1] Travelers used it for going between New York and northern areas such asSpuyten Duyvil andKingsbridge.[2] In 2011, the location of one of OldCroton Aqueduct's ventilating towers was discovered on the east side of the avenue.[3]
St. Nicholas Avenue is named afterSaint Nicholas of Myra, patron saint ofNew Amsterdam since Dutch times.[4]
On September 30, 1956, an American pilot namedThomas Fitzpatrick landed a stolen plane near 191st Street in front of a New York City bar where earlier he had been drinking and made an intoxicated barroom bet that he could travel from New Jersey to New York City in 15 minutes.[5][6]
In 2000, MayorRudolph Giuliani signed a bill adding the name "Juan Pablo Duarte Boulevard" to St. Nicholas Avenue for the stretch fromAmsterdam Avenue and West 162nd Street to the intersection of West 193rd Street and Fort George Hill. The added name was in honor ofJuan Pablo Duarte, one of the founding fathers of theDominican Republic.[7]
Media related toSt. Nicholas Avenue (Manhattan) at Wikimedia Commons40°49′39.67″N73°56′33.56″W / 40.8276861°N 73.9426556°W /40.8276861; -73.9426556